Africa picking up the fight for justice

UGANDAN Vanessa Nakate doesn’t want to be known as the “cropped out climate activist”.

It’s not how the 23-year-old identifies herself and the description carries unpleasant memories.

Rather, know the founder of the Africa-based Rise Up Movement for her climate activism, she implores.

Hers is a fight for climate justice. “African people are suffering the wrath of climate change now. It’s no longer Fridays for Future to us. It’s Fridays for Now. Therefore, every African activist needs to be listened to because we all have a story to tell.”

After Nakate finished high school, she wanted to do something that would improve the lives of Ugandans. “I found out that climate change was a major challenge and that was when I started striking for climate.”

In October 2019, she read about forests. “That’s when I found out that the Congo rainforest was the largest rainforest in Africa. I read about its destruction and its endangered species. This triggered me to start striking for the forest and create awareness for it.”

One of her tweets reads: “The Amazon burns and the whole world talks about it! ... Congo rainforest burns and a young girl talks about it. People are actually dying in Africa. But if these news companies don’t talk about the fires in Africa, it is sad.”

Her fight, too, is ensuring that other environmental activists and communities suffering from extreme weather are recognised.

Most African countries do not have the money to adapt to modern solutions to climate change “and that is why we need to preserve our forests, the largest carbon sinks. It is important for the youth to rise up and demand climate action because a secured future rightfully belongs to us”.

While there is a growing movement of climate strikes in Uganda and elsewhere on the continent, “our main challenge is striking in large numbers,” she says, citing fears of arrest.

Nakate started the Rise Up Movement to help amplify voices of activists from the continent. It runs in countries including Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria, Malawi, Togo, Zambia and Senegal. A local chapter has been started too.

In December, she attended the UN climate talks in Madrid, which ended in a deadlock.

“It gave me an opportunity to meet other activists and to pressurise our government leaders through strikes and demonstrations. It was disappointing because we expected a lot after a year of activism but our leaders failed us.

“Greta and other climate activists are my greatest support and motivation. They know what they want and are not ready to back down. This is inspiring and motivating. They push me to fight more each day.”

In Uganda, climate change is causing an uneven distribution of rainfall, characterised by heavy rains and landslides.

“Many lives are destroyed after such disasters, with no hope for the future. Flooding has become a song in various parts of Uganda, leaving unimaginable pain and suffering for the victims of climate change.”

But many people remain ignorant. “They do not know that we are in a climate crisis therefore it’s hard for them to believe in climate activism.”

GOODNESS DICKSON